Hello

Hello Sha123 and welcome to this group of supportive and helpful women.  I am sure that many different thoughts and emotions are going through your mind at the moment.-that is to be expected.  I was  diagnosed with high grade serous in 2021-please click on my profile name if you want to read my details.  You may find it helpful to fill in some details on your own profile.  Good luck with your op next week.

Thanks for your reply I will have a look now x

Hello Sha123

Welcome to the Womb group. I am sorry to hear of your diagnosis of womb cancer but am glad you do not have to wait too much longer for the surgery. My hysterectomy was actually 2 years ago today. I found it straightforward, had little pain after and recovered well from it.

You are right in thinking that treatments can vary and it depends on a lot of different factors and also can vary from hospital to hospital.

You have been given a provisional stage and grade and after surgery they will look more closely at what is taken away and the pathology from that will give a final stage, grade and some other details. This is what is normally used to determine whether further treatment is needed.

Stage 1A means that they believe that the cancer is confined to the womb and has not grown more than 50% into the muscle. There are several Grade 3 types of cancer (I had a different type of grade 3) and because they can behave a bit more aggressively then follow up treatment may be offered. But there are also other things that they look out for. 

I was stage 1 and grade 3 and had chemo and external radiotherapy. Some ladies get offered internal radiotherapy. 

My advice would be to focus on getting ready for the surgery and to do things one step at a time. I would avoid googling for information as it can be scary and not particularly accurate. I will pop a link to some info that I found helpful.

Womb cancer booklet | Macmillan Cancer Support

We also have the Support Line if you feel chatting things through would help. It can be tough at first when you are told you have cancer and things can seem to be very up and down and a bit of a whirlwind. 

I wish you well for your surgery on Monday and in the meantime if there is anything you need or want to ask please do so. There are many lovely ladies on here who will want to offer support.

Jane

Hi Sha123

I too was diagnosed with grade 3 serous stage  1a beginning of last year.

Yes treatments vary i was told i only needed 3 x sessions of brachytherapy and even this was only if i wanted too it was optional.

I did the brachytherapy and 1 year on I am fine.

Hi Sha123

My experience has been very similar to yours. Had a biopsy in December as a large polyp had been found at the neck of my womb at a routine smear test in March 2022 and was advised to have it removed even though most are benign and I had no symptoms. I then waited 16 months to see a gynaecologist after referral!

She recommended a hysteroscopy and biopsy which I had in December last year. The large polyp was benign but they found 2 smaller ones and I was phoned at the end of January to say I had grade 3 serous cancer in a polyp. It's such a shock isn't it? Then it's all the waiting- for CT scan to see if it's spread and then waiting 7 weeks for hysterectomy in my case.

I had my hysterectomy 2 and a half weeks ago and last night my surgeon phoned to say nothing was found in all the bits they took out! No cancer cells, nothing in sentinal nodes- so i don't need any extra treatment. It seems that when the polyps were removed at the biopsy in December that must have got rid of it all.

You are right though- treatment seems to vary. On here I have seen a lot of ladies with 1a serous have some extra treatment after hysterectomy even if it stays at 1a, so I'm not sure how I feel about having nothing. Maybe it depends on exactly what they find after hysterectomy. .

I wish you luck with your treatment. My hysterectomy was fine and I am recovering well. 

Hi I had a robotic hysterectomy 6 weeks ago today ! I was found to be stage 1a and the grade 3 cancer mixed with clear cell and they said I will have 3 sessions of bracytherapy and have first appointment for the next stage next Thursday so I’m sure the bracytherapy will be booked in then, 
good luck for Monday and your recovery which I feel great and back to my old self but I did take it slowly and listened to my body at the beginning now I am walking etc like before x 

Thankyou so much for your advice, your right of course it’s one step at a time!  

Oh that’s good news, I’m glad all went well, it’s such a mine field

Wow I can’t believe you waited so long for your initial referral but I suppose they weren’t expecting what they found!! I had a polyp too, but my referral was some spotting post menopausal, I’m 51 and went through the menopause quite early at 45, further investigation found the polyp then biopsy found the cancer! It’s such a shock isn’t it? I’m so glad things went well for you they are obviously happy they’ve got it all but it does puzzle me why some people are offered further treatment with the exact same grade/stage. Did you have all your lymph nodes removed? That’s another thing I was unsure about. 

Oh that’s amazing, so many positive responses on here about the surgery and the outcome, thankyou